Week Four: Other/Chinese Artist Lui Bolin

One of my friends sent me an email with many images from this Chinese artist Lui Bolin, otherwise know as the "Invisible Man." He has a team of assistants paint him into his surroundings & then photograph him. My first thoughts were "wow, this guy is pretty cool" & set about trying to find his website, which I could not find, but I did find many links/interviews from other artists. Bolin studied art for many years, primarily with a famous Chinese sculpturist. This picture is just one in a series called Hiding in the City. His inspiration for this series was the fact that the Chinese government bulldozed & destroyed the community in which he lived (a community of artists) leaving him homeless. This series deals with issues of social protest. It is interesting to move from thinking "wow, this guy does some interesting art," to understanding why he is doing what he is doing.... and interesting to understand the concept of his choosing to portray his disappearance into the environment & how it deals with oppression of culture, ideas & individuality.